Fishing the North Coast: Perch’n on the Peninsula slated for Saturday

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Arcata resident Brandi Easter is all smiles while holding her Redtail perch from last year’s Perch’n on the Peninsula Surfperch Fishing Tournament. The 10th annual event, which includes a fish fry, will be held this Saturday in Samoa. (Contributed/Samao Peninsula Fire District)

The Samoa Peninsula Fire District will be hosting their 10th Annual Perch’n on the Peninsula Surfperch Fishing Tournament and Fish Fry Fundraiser this Saturday, April 6 at the Peninsula Elementary School (located across the street from the Samoa Cookhouse).

This is a fun filled family-oriented fishing event that benefits the Samoa Peninsula Fire District Volunteer Organization. Adult fishing tournament entry is $20 and junior fishing tournament entry (Under 16) is only $10. Fishing tournament entry includes admission to the fish fry fundraiser. If you don’t like to fish and just want to have fun, come out and enjoy the delicious fish fry along with fresh Humboldt Bay oysters.

Admission into the Fish Fry Fundraiser is only $10 for adults and $5 for juniors, children 6 and under get in free. Lunch begins at 12 p.m. and weigh-ins end at 2 p.m. Prizes and raffle announcements start at 3 p.m. Raffle tickets will be available where you could win prizes and fishing charter trips from companies in our local community.

There will also be games for kids and adults to play where they can try and win more raffle tickets. Tournament day registration is available at the Peninsula Elementary School in Samoa beginning at 6 a.m. or your entries can be purchased at Pacific Outfitters, Englund Marine, Shafer’s Ace Hardware in Eureka, or LIVE2DIVE in Fairhaven. For more information, call (707) 443-9042 or visit www.samoafire.org. Event organizers would like to remind anglers to be safe and cautious around hazardous sea conditions.

Upcoming meetings

The PFMC and its advisory bodies will meet April 9‐16 in Rohnert Park to address issues related to groundfish, salmon, coastal pelagic species (CPS), Pacific halibut, and administrative matters. The meeting will be held at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Sonoma Wine Country, and will also be streamed live on the internet.

One of the key agenda items is to adopt final management measures for 2019 ocean salmon fisheries. Also on the agenda is the 2019 Klamath River Basin quotas of adult Klamath River fall Chinook. For more info, visit https://www.pcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/FinalEntirePackagel_MtgNotice_A4Agenda_QR_032119.pdf.

The Trinity River Restoration Program will host a public information meeting to present the 2019 spring restoration flow releases from Lewiston Dam and gravel augmentation plans for the Trinity River. The public meeting will be held in Weaverville on Thursday, April 11, from 6 – 7:30 p.m., TRRP Office, 1313 S. Main Street. For more info, visit https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/newsrelease/detail.cfm?RecordID=65383.

The California Fish and Game Commission will meet on Wednesday, April 17 in Santa Monica at 8:30 a.m. to adopt and discuss changes to the upcoming sport fishing seasons. The meeting will be live streamed at www.cal-span.org, for listening purposes only. If you’re interested in the Klamath River spring and fall salmon fisheries, you’ll want to listen in. On the agenda is discussion of proposed changes to the Klamath River Basin fall sport fishing. Also on the agenda is consideration of authorizing the take of Upper Klamath-Trinity river spring Chinook salmon. For more info, visithttps://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=166184&amp;inline

Brookings ocean update

“After a few weeks of slow fishing, the ocean out of Brookings was very good over the weekend for lingcod and rockfish,” said Andy Martin of Brookings Fishing Charters. “Recreational crabbing also re-opened last week out of Brookings. Lots of smaller lingcod are in shallow spawning and preparing to spawn. The six-pack charters got easy limits and many private boaters also limited between Bird Island and House Rock.”

The Beaches

When the ocean’s been calm, the Redtail perch action has been excellent along the beaches. There are some spots that are typically better than others, but you can catch them just about anywhere this time of the year. Conditions don’t look good for the weekend, with swells in the 9 to 13-foot range along with lots of south wind. A couple of good spots to get away from the rough seas are inside Humboldt Bay at the mouth of the Elk River (Stinky Beach) and King Salmon Beach.

The Rivers

As a reminder, the South Fork Eel, Van Duzen, Mattole, Mad, Redwood Creek, and the Chetco all closed to fishing on March 31.

Chetco/Rogue

The Chetco closed for the season on Sunday with just a few boats fishing reports Martin. “There were still some downrunners in the upper river, but very few bright fish. Overall, steelhead season was good on the Chetco, especially the second half of the season. Large numbers of downrunners in late February and March indicates a very high spawner escapement. There also have been big numbers of smolts, another indication of good things to come,” said Martin. Spring salmon fishing is slow to fair on the Rogue, but a few fish are being caught according to Martin. He said, “April is generally the best month for hatchery fish. Anchovies and spinner blades are working best. The river rose significantly Tuesday because of releases from Lost Creek Dam.”

Main Stem Eel

As we’ve been repeating all season, the main stem Eel just needs a couple more weeks of dry weather and it will be fishable. The two weeks of dry weather has yet to come to fruition, and the Eel remains high and off color. With more rain coming this weekend, we’ll be right back to square one. Flows are predicted to hit 34,000 cfs on Saturday morning. The wait continues.

Smith River

Not many fishing reports are coming out of the Smith, most anglers have moved on for the season. The river is in great shape, but that looks to change with the storms that will begin to hit the coast on Friday. The river will be big over the weekend, hitting 21,500 cfs on Friday night. These high flows should put the downers on the move and the fishing could be decent by next week. The Smith will remain open to fishing through April.

Find “Fishing the North Coast” on Facebook and fishingthenorthcoast.com for up-to-date fishing reports and North Coast river information. Questions, comments and photos can be emailed to kenny@fishingthenorthcoast.com